During a meeting, Gu Yongnian received a message from Old Zhou, unable to suppress his joyful smile. He waved for his secretary to go to the lobby to meet someone early.

The other directors at the round table exchanged glances, subtly looking at Gu Yong’an, who was flipping through project documents. His face showed no signs of joy or anger, but they could sense that he was not welcoming of his suddenly returned nephew.

Gu Yongnian’s son, raised in Country D, returning home might be a sign of something.

As Gu Yufeng got out of the car, he saw his secretary Lin Ying waiting at the lobby entrance. She was a sharp and capable woman in her thirties, and also his father’s mistress.

He was used to it by now; after all, his mother had a bunch of lovers too. The two old men had been living apart for years, each busy with their own careers, and they only met a handful of times a year. It was not surprising that they each had their own fun. As long as they didn’t bother him, they could play however they liked.

Lin Ying, dressed in professional attire, quickly approached Gu Yufeng with a proper smile, “Young Master, President Gu is in a meeting. Let me take you to the lounge.”

“Okay.” Gu Yufeng grabbed his backpack and walked through the lobby with Roberson, heading towards the elevator.

With his outstanding looks and status, Gu Yufeng immediately attracted the attention of everyone in the lobby.

A few young girls at the front desk stared wide-eyed, and once the group got on the elevator, they couldn’t help but huddle together to whisper.

The numbers on the display jumped to 20, and the elevator doors opened to a large, open office.

At this hour, the staff were busy working.

Gu Yufeng followed Lin Ying, occasionally nodding to the management personnel who came over to greet him.

Soon, the work group chat started buzzing with messages.

“Did you hear the boss’s son is at the company?! Where is he? Is he handsome? Need live updates!”

“Just went upstairs, super handsome, can’t even blink, sob!”

“Just walked past my desk, very easygoing and polite, clearly a well-educated kid.”

“The boss has a son? This is the first time I’ve heard in my six months here.”

“The boss often flies to Country D on weekends to see his son. I heard his father-in-law is a big tycoon in Country D, and the boss’s wife has a business empire bigger than Gu’s. People used to guess the boss’s son would inherit the business over there, but who knew he’d come back?”

“Someone’s going to have trouble sleeping tonight.”

Lin Ying diligently introduced the functions of each office area to Gu Yufeng. Seeing his lack of interest, she asked, “President Gu’s meeting should end in about twenty minutes. Shall I take you to the lounge?”

Just as Gu Yufeng was about to nod, he suddenly heard a surprised shout, which felt particularly out of place in the serious and busy office.

“What’s going on?” Roberson instinctively moved closer to Gu Yufeng, looking warily in the direction of the sound.

On the right side of the large office, a big fish tank was set against the wall, and two middle-aged men were arguing beside it.

“The fish was fine half an hour ago. Did you kill it? This was specially sought after by Old Gu from a feng shui master; you’d be in debt if you sold it!”

“Am I crazy? Why would I kill it for no reason?”

“How did the fish die then?”

“I came back with water and saw it belly up. I was just about to check what happened!”

“If it wasn’t you, how could it die on its own?!”

“What’s going on?”

Hearing footsteps behind them, the middle-aged man turned around and, upon seeing Gu Yufeng, quickly greeted him, “The fish kept here suddenly died, and we’re trying to find out why.”

The few employees gathered around the fish tank hurriedly stepped aside.

“The fish died?”

Gu Yufeng’s gaze shifted to the fish tank, his tone teasing, “With such a commotion, I thought my dad had died.”

His light-hearted comment left everyone in the office speechless.

The other middle-aged man spoke up, “This was Old Gu’s favorite fish. It was blessed by a feng shui master and took several requests to get. Every time he came to the company, he had to personally feed it. It was always fine until today, and now it’s dead right after you arrived…”

As he spoke, his voice grew quieter, but those who needed to hear it caught on.

The implication was clear: they were subtly blaming Gu Yufeng for the death of Old Gu’s fish.

At this point, everyone understood. This was a power play, using the highest-ranking member of the Gu family, Old Gu, to pressure him.

Lin Ying’s expression immediately turned cold, “What do you mean by that?”

The middle-aged man replied, “Nothing much, just speaking the truth.”

Lin Ying was about to call someone to check the surveillance when she heard a light chuckle.

Gu Yufeng glanced at the middle-aged man’s name tag and saw he was the assistant vice president, which didn’t surprise him. Only that second uncle would pull such petty tricks.

“Truly a fish blessed by a master; it really has a spirit.”

Gu Yufeng walked over to the fish tank, reached in, and pulled the fish out, inspecting it closely. “Knowing I don’t like fish, it decided to end its life before I arrived. This is the first time I’ve seen such self-awareness in a fish. But dying so easily makes me seem a bit unfeeling. It’s just a fish; as long as it behaves, I wouldn’t do anything to it.”

As he spoke, Gu Yufeng turned to the assistant vice president, “What do you think?”

The assistant vice president was taken aback, completely not expecting Gu Yufeng to respond this way. He lowered his head slightly to avoid Gu Yufeng’s gaze, awkwardly replying, “You’re right.”

Upon hearing this, Lin Ying couldn’t help but look at Gu Yufeng again.

The young man’s hand was raised, water flowing down his long, attractive fingers and disappearing into his rolled-up sleeves. He wore a smile that seemed to be unaffected by the situation, his eyes filled with the unique vitality and innocence of youth.

But that might just be a facade.

That earlier remark was double-edged, clearly a jab at Vice President Gu Yong’an.

She had thought Gu Yufeng would get angry or embarrassed from being targeted like this, but unexpectedly, he diffused the situation with just a few words and even turned the tables on Gu Yong’an.

Clearly, the young man was not as simple and easy to bully as she had imagined.

Thinking this, Lin Ying stepped closer to Gu Yufeng, extending her hands with a more respectful attitude than before, “Let me handle this dead fish.”

Roberson grimaced, pulling out a tissue from his pocket and handing it to Gu Yufeng, “Quick, give it to her. It’s disgusting.”

Gu Yufeng placed it in her palm, “This fish has made significant contributions to the company; it can’t be disposed of casually. If word gets out that the Gu family mistreats its old employees, it won’t look good.”

Lin Ying asked, “So what do you mean?”

Gu Yufeng wiped his hands, exuding a calmness as if everything was under his control, “The I Ching mentions that the east belongs to wind and the south to wood. Let’s hang it at the southeast corner of my dad’s office door. Let it continue to bless the company even in death.”

A group of employees eavesdropping instinctively recalled the location of the southeast corner of the president’s office, their expressions growing more and more interesting.

That position was none other than the vice president’s office, right?

Was he really going to hang a dead fish at someone’s door?

Lin Ying agreed, almost laughing.

Gu Yufeng added, “Remember to sprinkle some salt. It can’t be moved for forty-nine days; it will affect the company’s fortune.”

Lin Ying bit her lip, stifling a laugh, “I’ll have someone take care of it right away.”

With the hat of affecting the company’s fortune placed on it, who would dare to stop it? No one would.

The assistant vice president could only watch helplessly, feeling both embarrassed and anxious.

Gu Yufeng was not a soft target; this was going to be difficult for him.

Not long after Gu Yufeng entered the lounge, the entire company knew about it. The vice president had tried to use the fish to intimidate Gu Yufeng, only to be publicly countered by him.

In the first round of the uncle-nephew struggle, Gu Yufeng won decisively.

In the lounge, Gu Yufeng flipped through the documents Lin Ying had found for him, which detailed the Gu family’s support projects for the First Middle School over the years.

His dad, Gu Yongnian, was an alumnus of the school and had donated several teaching buildings. In addition, he sponsored many underprivileged and talented students each year.

Gu Yufeng flipped through nearly three years’ worth of documents but couldn’t find Xie Ci’s name. He looked up at Lin Ying, who was making coffee, and asked, “Why isn’t Xie Ci from the school basketball team on the list?”

“Xie Ci?”

Lin Ying thought for a moment, “Oh, he doesn’t meet our support criteria.”

“Doesn’t meet?” Gu Yufeng was puzzled.

“We’ve been keeping an eye on him since he was in middle school. His parents are divorced, and he’s living with relatives. Given his situation, he could have applied for the Gu family scholarship.”

Lin Ying placed the brewed coffee on the low table beside Gu Yufeng, “But later we found out that his relatives live in a prosperous area of the new district, which is a high-end villa area. The housing prices broke fifty thousand three years ago. Such favorable living conditions don’t qualify as impoverished.”

Favorable?

Gu Yufeng recalled the scene when he saw Xie Ci in that alley.

That cold, stubborn face was different from the Xie Ci he knew, who rarely showed emotions. The corner of his mouth bore a wound, his complexion pale, looking malnourished. The old sneakers on his feet were worn down to almost nothing, standing in a garbage-strewn alley, surrounded by a group of delinquents over a hundred bucks.

No matter how you looked at it, he was a pitiful kid, definitely not one raised in a wealthy family.

---

When Xie Ci returned to school, his homeroom teacher, Xiang Haibin, was called to a meeting. Fang Sizhe said he was lucky not to have to listen to that old man drone on for two hours.

It only took fifteen minutes to walk from school to his aunt’s house.

Xie Ci hadn’t walked this path home in seventeen years. He thought he might get lost along the way, but some memories were deeper than he had imagined.

The prosperous area was considered an old community, which had become a “school district house” due to the gradually accumulating educational resources around it, causing housing prices to soar.

As Xie Ci walked, he looked around, standing outside the familiar yet strange iron gate, gazing at the house he had lived in for ten years.

Living in such a beautiful garden villa was something to be envied, yet it hadn’t brought him many good memories. The first thing that came to mind was his uncle’s red, twisted face when drunk, the dull pain of his fists landing on him, and his aunt’s cold gaze afterward.

He thought he would never have to interact with that family of three again.

He could allow them to live in a place he couldn’t see, each minding their own business.

But living under the same roof again was another story.

After all, he wasn’t exactly a good person.

Xie Ci pushed open the iron gate, worried about whether he could hold back from acting out.

As soon as he entered the yard, he faintly heard voices coming from the small terrace on the right, one of which was his aunt’s gentle voice.

“Raising two kids must be so stressful. If you don’t keep an eye on them, they’ll get hurt. You’re so kind to help your sister raise her kids all these years.”

“You can’t just watch the kids wander off, right? Besides, my sister’s kids are my kids too; they’re just a bit mischievous.”

“I heard he gets into fights all the time and his grades are terrible. I can’t believe you’re so good to him; he’s just a hopeless case. I get annoyed and have a headache seeing such wild kids.”

“My Pengpeng’s grades aren’t great either.”

“Didn’t Pengpeng just rank a hundredth in the grade? He’s much better than him. Besides, Pengpeng is so well-behaved.”

“I always feel like adults owe him something and want to compensate a bit. My husband always says I spoil him too much; maybe my way of educating him is the problem. Just now, the homeroom teacher called and said he skipped the exam again. Who knows where he ran off to? Sigh, this kid.”

“He’s already like this; raising him until he graduates high school is enough. After that, he can do whatever he wants. Don’t worry about it; you can’t control him anyway.”

“What can such a small child do in society? Are you really going to make him go work on a construction site?”

“This is his choice. Can you support him for life? He knows that…”

Xie Ci found it somewhat amusing after hearing a few lines.

His aunt always liked to put on a caring facade in front of others, exposing his shortcomings to occupy the moral high ground, enjoying the satisfaction that came from belittling him and receiving praise from others.

Feeling playful, Xie Ci turned the corner and stood in front of them, “Aunt, I’m back.”

The two sitting at the table drinking tea froze simultaneously.

Hearing them talk bad about him behind his back, the neighbors felt a bit awkward and hurriedly lifted their teacups to drink.

His aunt, Ye Yuru, looked much more natural, seemingly unafraid of Xie Ci hearing her, or perhaps she was confident that even if he did, he wouldn’t understand her true intentions.

“Xiao Ci, where have you been? The homeroom teacher called and was very angry, saying you didn’t go to the exam.” Ye Yuru sounded a bit angry, but her tone was gentle, lacking any real bite.

Xie Ci hesitated before speaking, “Zhanpeng borrowed money to go online, and when he didn’t pay it back, he got beaten up. I went to help him deal with it.”

The neighbor suddenly looked up, surprised.

Ye Yuru was also taken aback by his words, but with someone else present, she couldn’t lose her temper. She scolded, “What nonsense are you talking? How could he borrow money?”

“Go ask him yourself.”

Xie Ci glanced at the neighbor, seeming to consider that it was inconvenient to say more with someone else around. He turned to leave but suddenly remembered something and said to Ye Yuru, “The study can be repaired, but if he keeps borrowing like this, who knows when he’ll get beaten to death outside? You should talk to him.”

After saying that, he left behind a shocked Ye Yuru and the neighbor, entering his room.

The neighbor’s expression changed repeatedly, frequently glancing at Ye Yuru.

Ye Yuru felt extremely embarrassed, forcing a smile, “What’s with this kid… How could Pengpeng possibly borrow money?”

“Exactly.”

The neighbor said this while putting down the cup and getting up, looking a bit awkward. “It’s getting late; I should head back. Let’s plan to meet again next time.”

Once the neighbor left the yard, they immediately shared the incident in their chat group with their girlfriends.